Final Post from Newfoundland

Today was my last day in Newfoundland before returning home. Two last loggings, made from Deer Lake:

• WRCA, 1330 kHz, Waltham MA, at 0656-0700 UTC. English, fair signal. Danny Styles Nostalgia Show, then ID with location on the hour. 17 kW. Relog.
• XLM616, 162.4 MHz, Gander NL at 1104-1130 UTC. Fair signal. English and French. Environment Canada weather radio with conditions for southwestern Newfoundland. ID with callsign and location at 1128.

I logged a lot of new stations while I was in Newfoundland and made a few good DX catches. On the whole, however, it was not as productive for DXing as I had hoped. The main problem was the amount of electrical interference present at most of the places I stayed. A secondary problem was that it was getting dark late so good DX conditions each night on AM didn't really get started until well after 10 pm local time, and I usually needed to get to bed by midnight in order to be up for the next day's activities. Most of the places I stayed also did not have the option of setting up outside to listen.

From this I've drawn a few conclusions. If you want to go on a listening DXpedition, you need to scout out a suitable listening location beforehand to ensure it is free of electrical noise and has the physical facilities to enable you to set up your equipment and to put up antennas. You will also need to plan to stay in that location for several days. If you need to check out in the morning, that pretty much prevents you from staying up late DXing the night before. This is an important consideration when DXing the mediumwave or longwave bands in the summer at northern latitudes because it doesn't get dark until quite late. A place without maid service is also preferable, for the same reason. Finally you'll need to focus on the DXing. If you're spending your days doing other activities, you'll need to get up early, which prevents you from staying up late.